After enduring months of contrived viral marketing campaigns and fluffy monologues from James Allard, the Xbox 360 launch has finally come upon us. If you are one of the lucky few to have preordered months back or endured long waits at a Wal-Mart, the question of buying is irrelevant. For many others, the big question lingers: Is the $300 investment worth every cent?

Microsoft Corp.’s much-touted backwards compatibility isn’t what it seems for the Xbox 360. One of the major issues is that it’s missing a slew of major franchises in its list of compatible titles: Why is Dead or Alive 3 compatible but not its sequel, Dead or Alive Ultimate? Not to mention the absence of Splinter Cell, Burnout and Soul Calibur II, or the fact that you need to download a patch to play Halo 2 online.

Blatant shortcomings aside, the Xbox 360 does play compatible titles smoothly. Although Microsoft claims that Xbox games get enhanced with 4x anti-aliasing and 720 progressive-scan resolution, our prepatched Halo 2 shows a negligible visual upgrade. This, of course, is set to change with the console launch, with Microsoft offering a massive download that will purportedly improve the look of games -- and hopefully extend that inadequate compatibility list to include more high-profile games.

Thankfully, none of Halo 2’s sharp controls get lost to the Xbox 360 controller, meaning games won’t feel any different than with the original Xbox.

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